Parents forced to remove kids from boarding schools due to drought pressures

Parents are having to seriously consider whether they can afford to send kids to boarding school during the drought.

Giulio Saggin: ABC News

It's become clear that for some rural families children's educations have become a casualty of the drought.

The Isolated Childrens' Parents Association has flagged that many farming parents are pulling kids from boarding school because they're unable to afford the fees.

That's been reinforced by the Principal of Downlands College at Toowoomba in Queensland, Stephen McIllhatton.

"We're starting to receive statements from parents saying as much as they value the education for their children they just cannot see the way clear to put their children into Downlands this year," he says.

"They have asked that we keep their positions available and hopefully, with a turn around in weather conditions and cropping over the next 12 months, their circumstances will improve and they would like to put their children back into the school."

Mr McIllhatton says they lost about six to seven students at the end of last year due directly to drought.

"I do suspect that over the next 12 months I'm going to get an increasing number of parents asking for some sort of financial plan or omission of fees.

"We will do our very best to accommodate them and come up with a plan that'll enable their children to continue to get education."